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Saturday, 17 January 2015

Keeper - MMXIV (Review)

Album Type :
Demo

Date
released: 05/07/2014

Label: Grimoire/Black
Plague Records

MMXIV
CD//DD//Tape track Listing:

1) Hours Pt
1 (09::57)

2) As it
Needs To Be… (08:16)

3)
Perception/Prescription (08:20)

4)
Admittance (09:13)

5) All it
Needs to Be … Pt 2&3 (09:59)

Keeper
is:

Jacob Lee | Guitar,
Bass, Vox
Penny Keats |Guitar, Drums, Vox

Review:

Hailing
from Fresno, California, Keeper are a new breed of blackened sludge, a doom
laden black metal hybrid monstrosity. What sets Keeper apart (and has earned
them sought after spots on various 2014 end of year lists), is their blend of
black and post metal, combined with distorted guitar drones and grating vocals.
Keeper create a skin crawling aural experience with their debut ‘MXXIV’,
appealing to fans of the punishing sounds of Thou, Indian and The Body.

MXXIV
begins with the oozing nihilism of ‘Hours Pt 1’, with slow, sludgy, crunching
guitars whilst a raspy voice screeches, “I walk in the shallows...snakes bite
at my ankles” on repeat. You can easily imagine that the vocalist is wading
through a swamp, in the process of being attacked by snakes, and is really pissed off about it. The track
itself weaves through its various parts in a serpentine manner and into ‘As it
needs to be’, which is another track seeping with complete resignation, yet
with added melodic post-metal atmospherics for good measure.

The
third track ‘Perception/Prescription’ typifies the structural diversity that
punctuates the entirety of ‘MMXIV’, where the black metal
influences of the band are clear, particularly through the distorted introduction
which leads ironically into the vocalist shrieking about his “blissful evening
on the water…hands clutched at broken teeth”.

‘Admittance’,
the penultimate track, is a down tempo, trudging confessional in which the
vocalist desperately confesses to taking 150 pills, this track being the
nightmarish aftermath.

Breaking
from the rest of the album, ‘All it needs to be Pt 2&3’ ends the album with
a stripped back sound loaded with fuzzy guitars/vocals and ear-piercing reverb.
Reminiscent of The Body, the track challenges the listener to endure the album
to its completion via its subhuman shrieking and contorted guitars, giving the
entire record an almost otherworldly quality.

Keeper’s
debut ‘MMXIV’ blurs the line between the listener’s pain and enjoyment by way
of cross-genre diversity. For this reason, Keeper is a key band to watch in
2015, especially with the release of their Sea Bastard split this month.

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